Meet: Matt Brodeur

Meet Matt Brodeur, a life-long Millbury resident who describes himself as "a stay-at-home Dad who's into tech and guitar." Matt is my favorite type of Millbury-ite: one who has figured out how to take his own creative juices and put them to use to make his community a more enjoyable place for others to live.

As a recent example, Matt melded his love of music, a little creative ingenuity, his active role as a Millbury Cub Scout den leader, and a touch of internet inspiration to teach members of Pack 109 how to create their own (remarkably good-sounding) banjo/ukulele hybrid out of pie tins and hardware store tidbits. How awesome is that?!?! (More details on Matt's "banjolele" build here.)

I'm an avid supporter of folks like Matt who put their creative interests & talents out there for others in the community to enjoy. If you are too, you can catch him frequently playing at Ed DeLuca's Open Mic Night at the PACC in Webster, MA or keep up with him on the web for other local gigs (links below).

I don't know about you, but I'd be much more likely to hang out for an evening at one of Millbury's fine local establishments if it came with fine local entertainment! Hint, wink, nudge.

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Matt Brodeur on the web:
MattBrodeur.com
MattBrodeurTrio.com
Facebook
Twitter
Video: Matt's acoustic Beatles demo

The Tale of Two Gavels

Where do little nuggets of history come from? Sometimes they are simply all that remains from a given time and place. But sometimes it's that people went out of their way to save something from the past and preserve it for others to see in the future, thus becoming a little piece of history themselves in the process.

As the story goes, Fred Baldwin and his son Warren saved a piece of mahogany handrail from the old Millbury Town Hall just as it was being destroyed by fire in 1971. If you haven't read the full (but concise) story on the Millbury Historical Society's website, I highly encourage you to do so (and then imagine today trying to enter a burned building with a chainsaw while the fire hoses were still running!).

The salvaged chunk of mahogany was fashioned into a pair of beautiful gavels in Fred Baldwin's shop, one of which (pictured above) is on-display at the Millbury Historical Society's Museum, located on the second floor of the Asa Waters' mansion on Elm Street.